Federal jury finds for Google in dispute with Oracle

A federal jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] found on Wednesday that Google [corporate website] did not infringe [verdict slip, PDF] Oracle [corporate website] patents. However, the jury split [JURIST report] on the copyright phase of the trial over whether Google's use could be considered "fair use." Oracle alleged that Google's use of Java in its Android OS violated Oracle's patents and copyrights. Oracle sought up to $1 billion in damages. Because the jury split on the copyright issue, Oracle may get the opportunity to retry [Ars Technica report] it, but there will not be a damages phase of the trial. The jury strongly favored Google [Ars Technica report], according to the jury foreman.

The case went to trial [JURIST report] last month after settlement negotiations broke down. In addition to defending against patent claims, Google has also been under fire recently regarding its new privacy policy [JURIST news archive], which came into effect in March. EU data authorities are concerned [JURIST report] about the sharing and combination of personal data across services and its compliance with European data protection legislation.

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